International Fan Festival (IFF) is the biggest anime event in Canada which celebrates for anime and Japanese culture. This year, IFF made its way to the birthplace of anime, Japan! International Fan Festival Osaka 2018 (IFF Osaka)took place At Grand Cube Osaka (Osaka International Convention Center) on 6 & 7 October 2018.

The festival provides participants with opportunities to get closer to their heroes in anime, music, comics, games and novels as well as to voice actors. The star-studded guest list this year included voice actors who are popular in and out of Japan: Tomokazu Seki, Katsuyuki Konishi, Kana Ueda, Shizuka Ito, Ayako Kawasumi, Ami Koshimizu, Mikako Takahashi and Fumie Mizusawa.

The festival also offered various events which anime fans could actively participate in over the two days, including ‘Photo Sessions’ where fans could take group photos with voice actors, ‘Live Recordings’ where sound directors and voice actors demonstrate recording in sync with animation, and ‘Q&A Talk Show’ where guests answer fans’ questions sent to the website or collected at the venue.

To celebrate the launch of IFF in Japan, our friends over at ‘Anime! Anime!’ conducted an email interview series with the guest voice actors prior to the event. In the second installment, Tomokazu Seki and Katsuyuki Konishi talk about the differences between fans in Japan and overseas, popular characters abroad and their enthusiasm for the festival.

Tomokazu Seki Interview

’IFF Osaka’ is planned by a Canadian company and is the first reverse-imported anime event in Japan. Are you interested in anime events from around the world? Also, could you share with us your enthusiasm for participating in an anime event with a new concept like IFF Osaka?

I’m totally interested in overseas anime events!

I expect that IFF Osaka will be an international anime event we’ve never seen in Japan. I can’t wait to meet and communicate with various people in the venue.

You have taken part in overseas anime events before. What did you think of the enthusiasm of the fans there? Do you also think there are many differences between anime fans in and out of Japan?

The fans overseas always give me a warm welcome at anime events.

I don’t feel any big difference between fans in Japan and abroad. They just express their feelings in different ways. My heart is filled with happiness at their enthusiasm.

A live recording event is taking place at IFF Osaka. Have you ever taken part in such an event overseas before? Do you think there any differences between the reactions of the fans in Japan and overseas?

Actually, I’ve never done live recording at an event outside Japan, so I don’t know how they’ll react. I once quoted a bit of my line during a panel discussion and the audience loved it! Perhaps fans at the event might react in a similar way.

You have portrayed many popular anime characters. Who is the most popular character with overseas fans, and what do you think is the reason?

Umm… That’s actually a difficult question to answer. I can’t choose one character because each fan has their favorite character with their own personal memory attached to them. They are all different ranging from the one I portrayed ages ago to the quite recent ones.

Please give your message to your fans who are eagerly waiting the festival.

IFF Osaka will be a unique event we’ve never experienced before! Let’s enjoy the festival together!!